Who inspires you? What inspires you? I know, it seems like work. You’ve been told before to “look for inspiration.” It’ll make you happier. It’ll make you a better person. But it’s hard. And sometimes the people who inspire us also make us feel overwhelmed, or hopeless, or powerless. Like, look at how easy success came for those people. Or, why is she famous, but not me? 

I used to struggle with this task. It used to intimidate me to think of successful people. Then, I learned a trick. The trick is to avoid looking at all of the great things the person does, and go back, way back, to when that person was unknown, before they were successful. Go back in that person’s mind to understand who they were when they first started thinking of becoming successful. There, you’ll find a nugget of what made that person great, and hopefully you’ll realize that you possess that same nugget inside of you. Here’s an example. 

Let’s choose Danny DeVito. Not only is he a phenomenal actor, but he’s also laughably short for a professional actor. But forget his accolades and success. Let’s go back to when he was in high school. There’s Danny, likely just as funny as ever, not yet bald, but still very short. He’s hilarious, probably interrupting class all the time, and probably great fun to be around. But, he’s really short, and it gives him trouble getting ladies. Not only that, but other guys pick on him and continually make fun of his height. Plus, every play that he’s cast for, he also plays the midget, or the child. He’s never cast for the main role because of his height. 

But instead of getting destroyed by this seemingly unending barrage of obstacles in his life, he gets motivated. He says, “so what if I’m short and probably done growing, I’ll just have to be that much more talented to be an actor. So what if I have trouble getting ladies now, I’ll just have to be successful first, then they’ll come swooning.” Here is a short, not particularly attractive or athletic guy who is so determined to follow his dream of becoming an actor that he breaks all sorts of barriers on his way to acting success. Danny wasn’t dealt a good hand, but he didn’t care. He played with what he had, and he played it well. Despite all of his obstacles, he was successful. And just look at him now. He’s still hilarious, still working, and still a damn good actor. He hasn’t grown an inch, hasn’t become athletic or good-looking, but he’s marvelous, and we love him. If thinking about the story of Danny DeVito doesn’t inspire you to go out there and do what you love, then I don’t know what does. But it inspires the hell out of me...and also makes me want to watch some “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”